Question about Wisdom and Intelligence

[Bishop]

I want to have a mage and a cleric in my group. I know that the mage needs high intelligence, but does having a high score on Wisdom help him in any way? I have the same question for the cleric. I know she has to have a high wisdom, but does having higher points on wisdom help her have more spells or any other benefits. I just wanted to run this by all you "real" D&D guys. I am still a newbie to all this D&D stuff. Thanks.

-Bishop

You can afford to give your Magic-user 17/intelligence.Personally I wouldn't. but you will come across some magical items that will increase ability scores permanantly later in the game. but til than you will suffer.For me 18/intelligence,and wisdom for my M.U. And Cleric is priority. Than next I focus on dexterity/constitution/strength,charisma is last for these characters. but dont go to week on the strength as I found out.than your character may not be capable of carrying thier share of items. I try to have all my proficiency's no lower than "10" as a general rule. Have fun!

Assuming the ability scores are the same as BG1, you'll start getting magic defense bonuses & lore bonuses at wisdom 15. If I've got points to spare in any class I dump 'em in wisdom (if I can get it up to at least 15) just for the magic defence. Cleric starts getting bonus spells at wis. 13. Intel governs a mage's spell levels (how high a level of spell they can memorize), % to learn spell, maximum spells per level & lore bonus (15 & up). I think the cleric only benefits from the intel lore bonus.

The abilities I'd focus on for Mages are Intelligence and dexterity, since they get no armor they can use the defence. and some spells cannot be cast by Mages with low dex, therefore you wont learn them. Also High dex lets your mages get the spells off faster in combat that can make all the diffrence. For Clerics, wisdom and constitution would be my main focus. Most of the time they will be the medics, and can use all the HP's they can get while going into the thick of things to heal up the fighters. In either case I'd keep them back as spell casters. Since neither one can use range weapons (darts and sling stones dont do much). Any way thats my 2 cp's

[Leafy]

Check out the maunal on disk one for tables listing the stat score modifyers

for a mage, i max int and dex, but you only really NEED an intelligence of about 15. Also, put his con to 16 so he gets an extra 2hp/level (1hp/level at 15).

For the cleric, always ALWAYS max the wisdom out. more wisdom=more spells... wisdom is supposed to help you save verses illusions too... but it doesn;t seem to happen much in IWD (now, BG2 is different, a thief with hisg wisdom is really cool to "detect traps" during a battle and then suddenly enemy mage's mirror immages disappear)
Also, a cleric gets the best spell ever, Call upon holy might! for this reason alone, you gotta make your cleric's strength 18. at 3rd level, he'll raise his strength to 19 (+3 to hit! +7 damage!). The constitution only needs to be 16 for the HP bonus, and i'd max dexterity.

who needs charisma! there should be one hot bard chick in the party if you really want to do charisma.

You'll find you reload the game a lot less with 18-19 (gnome) intelligence. That alone is worth it.

[Wrath]

Just to clarify, Dex has NO effect on what spells can be cast by a mage, and does NOT give them a faster casting speed. The only thing Dex does for a Mage is give them the extra AC, which IMO ain't even all that great. They shouldn't be getting hit in melee anyway, and even if they do, Mirror Image and Stoneskin take care of that problem quite nicely I always max Int first, then spread the points among Wis and Con, for the HPs and magic defense (the ONLY kind of damage they should be taking anyway, HPs will help them survive those Fireballs and Lightning Bolts). I try to keep Str above 10, so they can carry more than a napkin on them, and put whatever's left to Dex. Remember that 7 Dex has the exact same benefits of 14 Dex, so save yourself the points. Cha is last, since my Mages never lead my party anyway, and the Pally, Druid or Bard can be the talker

-Wrath